Magic Quadrant for Mobile DeviceManagement Software17 May 2012 ID:G00230508

Analyst(s): Phillip Redman, John Girard, Monica Basso

VIEW SUMMARYAlthough MDM features have commoditized with little differentiation, the platforms are expandingdeeper into enterprise mobile software and document management support. Enterprises should looknot just at a vendor's MDM technology but also at how well it can support enterprise mobile needs.

Market Definition/DescriptionThis document was revised on 21 June 2012. The document you are viewing is the correctedversion. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.

Enterprise mobile device management (MDM) software is primarily a policy and configurationmanagement tool for mobile handheld devices, such as smartphones and tablets based on smartphoneOSs. It helps enterprises manage the transition to a more complex mobile computing andcommunications environment by supporting security, network services, and software and hardwaremanagement across multiple OS platforms. This is especially important as bring your own device(BYOD) initiatives become the focus of many enterprises. It can support corporate-owned as well aspersonal devices, and helps support a more complex and heterogeneous environment. The primarydelivery model is on-premises, but it can also be offered as software as a service (SaaS) or through thecloud. Although some MDM vendors also support PCs, this Magic Quadrant focuses only on mobilecapabilities.

Return to Top

Magic Quadrant

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software

Source: Gartner (May 2012)

Return to Top

Vendor Strengths and CautionsAirWatchBased in Atlanta, Georgia, AirWatch has seen significant growth of its customer base during the pastyear in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It primarily delivers MDM throughits cloud service, although it can also support on-premises needs. AirWatch has done a good job scalingits business during the past year and has grown its head count by more than 250%, with a significant

NOTE 1OTHER MDM VENDORS

A number of vendors assessed for this Magic Quadrantwere not included because they did not meet ourcriteria. Many of them, however, offer some type ofMDM software or services. Examples include:

3LMAbsolute SoftwareAetherPalAlcatel-LucentAlepoApperianAvoceenBlackbox MobileBMC SoftwareCA TechnologiesCapricodeCloud SystemsCommSolvCommonTimeCortadoEquinox SoftwareFinepoint SoftwareGill TechnologiesGoogleHalosysHPInnoPathiPassJAMF SoftwareJuniper NetworksLRW TechnologiesMformation TechnologiesMobiDMMobi WirelessMobileFrameMobiquantMicrosoftNitroDeskNotify TechnologyNovellPerlego SystemsSirrixVirtelaWavelinkWyse TechnologyZelog

NOTE 2POTENTIAL MDM DISRUPTIVE VENDORS

There are a few companies that are not in this year'sMagic Quadrant. They did not meet our inclusioncriteria; however, they could have a profound role inMDM during the next year, because many areconsidering entering this space. These include:

Research In Motion — RIM is just getting tocommercial availability of its MDM platform, MobileFusion. Although it doesn't meet this year's criteriabecause of market launch timing, it does have aninstalled base of 10,000 enterprises that it cantarget. RIM won't bring any new capabilities tomanaging iOS and Android this year that otherscan't do, but could be a force if it decides to investmore in this area.

portion of its staff in Europe (establishing one of the stronger positions locally). It is one of the moreinnovative companies, adding features before most of its competitors. Those features include contentmanagement, Secure Multipurpose Internet Messaging Extensions (S/MIME), Kerberos integrations,and an extensive Web and application development framework. Its cloud services support some of thebiggest deployments of MDM, some with greater than 40,000 lines managed. AirWatch also provides awireless LAN (WLAN) management console solution designed to provide a single point of management,monitoring and support for all wireless network infrastructures. AirWatch is recommended for midsizeand large companies, especially those that have broad MDM needs.

Strengths

It has a strong security focus, with enterprise integration services that encrypt the traffic betweenan enterprise's servers and its cloud system.

AirWatch offers Web-based as well as agent-based enrollment.

It has a strong capability to profile, with detailed and easy-to-use policy settings.

Its strong administrative interface is easy to use and manage.

AirWatch is easy to scale and can support large numbers of users across multiple areas.

Cautions

AirWatch does not yet support the ability to customize views and dashboards.

It needs to increase its support of alternative channels in the enterprise market, especially withcommunications service providers.

Its international client support and responsiveness have been reported as occasionally limited.AirWatch needs to raise its level of local support outside the U.S., directly or through partners, asit grows its global sales volume.

Return to Top

AmtelAmtel is a small telecom expense vendor from Santa Clara, California. Although its focus primarily hasbeen on telecom expense management (TEM), it released a self-developed MDM tool in 2011, whichhas had significant uptake across its customer base. Amtel offers basic MDM capabilities at very lowrates, which has been a key to its success. Amtel is recommended for small and midsize companiesthat are looking for basic MDM services.

Strengths

It provides a clear and easy-to-use MDM tool.

Amtel can incorporate single-company TEM and MDM functionality.

Cautions

Amtel has a small sales and marketing group to support MDM.

It has little visibility in MDM, and is slower to incorporate features than competitors.

Amtel has little market presence outside of the U.S.

Return to Top

BoxToneBoxTone is based in Columbia, Maryland. It initially was focused on real-time mobile monitoring forBlackBerry deployments. During the past three years, it has expanded its coverage into broad mobiledevice and mobile application management, with support for iOS and Android devices. BoxToneincludes an integration framework that connects with many popular system management andmonitoring platforms (for example, Microsoft, HP, CA Technologies, IBM and BMC Software) andintegrates with many key mobile technology and enterprise infrastructure vendors (such as Appthority,Accellion, Mocana and Aruba Networks) for customer flexibility. BoxTone mobile service managementextends MDM to include service desk management, incident management, problem management andapplication performance management.

Strengths

BoxTone has had a long-term focus on enterprise mobility, with a deep understanding of ITsecurity, management, processes and service-level requirements.

Its product vision is centered on IT process automation, to enable cost-effective quality of service,security and manageability, and to eliminate unnecessary human interventions. Throughintegration with enterprise infrastructure, such as Active Directory and real-time monitoring —combined with real-time monitoring, mobile analytics and autoenforcement — BoxTone canproactively detect and remediate policy and compliance violations.

It has strong security support through a multilayer defense approach that encompasses users,devices, applications, files and content, and connections that include Federal InformationProcessing Standard (FIPS) and other certifications. For secure mobile app management, BoxToneprovides containerization, data loss prevention (DLP) and encryption on devices. It also providesunique IPsec tunnel encryption for over-the-air communication of individual applications through atechnology partner, Mocana.

The company emphasizes a comprehensive, modular mobility management approach spanningmultiple IT roles — user self-service, service desk, IT operations, data center operations, security,compliance, applications, finance and IT management. Its management of mobility servers — inparticular, BlackBerry enterprise server (BES) — allows an IT administrator to manage all devices,

Microsoft — The company is increasing itscapability of SCMDM and Windows Intune with its2012 versions, but is not expected to have ageneral availability product until year-end 2012. Itwill likely focus on supporting Windows Phone 7and Windows 8 products primarily, but looking toextend to iOS and Android.Google — The company has some online MDMfunctions today, with limited capabilities for Appleand Android, cloud only. It hasn't said or indicatedwhat it wants to do with the 3LM acquisition it gotthrough Motorola. However, most companies arehoping it will use it to include an enterprise versionof Android to OEMs.BMC — Will need time to integrate its recentacquisition of Numara, a small MDM provider. Italso partners with AirWatch and others.

NOTE 3DECIDING TO MOVE FROM EXCHANGEACTIVESYNC TO A MORE COMPREHENSIVEMDM PLATFORM

Most companies started out using ExchangeActiveSync (EAS) to manage their devices, but found itlacking in these areas, which pushed them to purchasea fuller MDM suite:

Volume of devices. It is difficult to manage a largervolume of devices on EAS. Once companies got tomore than 500 devices, they typically looked for afuller MDM suite.Mix of platforms. Companies that had two or moremobile OS platforms to manage found it difficult todo so on EAS.Granular support and policy. Fuller MDM systemsoffer a deeper management capability, withmore-detailed policies. For example, EAS allowspasswords to be enforced (depending on themobile OS), but more-comprehensive MDMsystems allow more flexibility in the types, lengthsand complications in a password.Reporting. EAS is very weak on device reporting.Companies wanting better reporting went to fullerMDM systems.

EVALUATION CRITERIA DEFINITIONS

Ability to ExecuteProduct/Service: Core goods and services offered bythe vendor that compete in/serve the defined market.This includes current product/service capabilities,quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offerednatively or through OEM agreements/partnerships asdefined in the market definition and detailed in thesubcriteria.

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial,Strategy, Organization): Viability includes anassessment of the overall organization's financialhealth, the financial and practical success of thebusiness unit, and the likelihood that the individualbusiness unit will continue investing in the product, willcontinue offering the product and will advance thestate of the art within the organization's portfolio ofproducts.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor’s capabilities inall presales activities and the structure that supportsthem. This includes deal management, pricing andnegotiation, presales support, and the overalleffectiveness of the sales channel.

Market Responsiveness and Track Record: Abilityto respond, change direction, be flexible and achievecompetitive success as opportunities develop,competitors act, customer needs evolve and marketdynamics change. This criterion also considers thevendor's history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativityand efficacy of programs designed to deliver theorganization's message to influence the market,promote the brand and business, increase awarenessof the products, and establish a positive identificationwith the product/brand and organization in the mindsof buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by acombination of publicity, promotional initiatives,thought leadership, word-of-mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products andservices/programs that enable clients to be successfulwith the products evaluated. Specifically, this includesthe ways customers receive technical support oraccount support. This can also include ancillary tools,customer support programs (and the quality thereof),

including BlackBerry, through a single console, Good for Enterprise, which allows management ofhybrid deployments and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Cautions

BoxTone has a very U.S.-centric presence in the market, and a relatively small presence in Europeand Asia/Pacific. It has been leveraging partners and management service providers forinternational reach. Direct international expansion may remain challenging for the company,because competitors are moving fast internationally.

While feedback on BoxTone's level of support is always positive, some customers in regions otherthan the U.S. reported a lack of local support and consequent delays in responding to requests.

Its application containerization through Mocana technology is not used for existing nativeapplications on the device (for example, the Apple email client), although BoxTone offers awrapped version of NitroDesk's TouchDown email application for Android, as well as support forGood Technology.

Despite the significant installed base, BoxTone's visibility in the market is less than that of leadingvendors in the MDM space.

Return to Top

FiberlinkFiberlink is a private company based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, that was founded in 1991. It is a uniqueplayer in the MDM market, providing a pure cloud-based MDM offering — MaaS360 — through SaaSand managed services. MaaS360 support is offered for a variety of devices, including Android, iOS,BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 models. Originally focused on remote-access service management(offering a connection agent to negotiate worldwide Internet access for traveling users), since 2007, ithas increasingly prioritized on MDM activities. Fiberlink is recommended for companies of all sizes andgeographies.

Strengths

Fiberlink has proven long-term viability, with most revenue originating in North America andEurope, and growing activities in the Middle East and Asia/Pacific. The company is profitable,growing in revenue and staffing.

Its global presence is developing through a network of channel partners, including resellers,distributors, managed service providers and carriers (such as Verizon Wireless and O2). TheMaaSters partner program enables third parties to market, sell, implement and support MaaS360.In 2011, 40% of Fiberlink's total revenue was generated through partners.

It has expertise and a track record in complementary markets, such as mobility and telecomservices delivered through scalable cloud-based network operations centers (NOCs). Fiberlink'sMaaS360 management client agent and user self-service portal are well-known in the remote-access and VPN markets. Also, MaaS360 supports complete life cycle management for PCs andMacs (laptops and desktops) with Visibility and Control Services.

A range of new functions extend MaaS360 capabilities on mobile application management (MAM)and containerization of corporate data. For MAM, MaaS360 provides corporate applicationcatalogs, mobile application policies, and a mobile cloud API and software development kit (SDK)to enhance its own application security and management (AppExtender). For containerization, itenables lockdown of corporate email (native email on iOS, through TouchDown on Android) anddocuments on personal devices (Doc Cloud and Doc Catalog).

Fiberlink clients recurrently indicated very positive feedback on smooth implementation,configuration and testing, as well as excellent customer support. It had great feedback onintegration with cloud email services, such as Microsoft BPOS and Office 365.

Cautions

The MaaS360 pure cloud service offering restricts viability only to organizations that arecomfortable with the cloud model. While MDM cloud services had growing demand during the past12 months, and Gartner expects rising adoption in the future, many heavily regulatedorganizations cannot afford to keep corporate data on third-party clouds and are obliged to deployon-premises for compliance.

Fiberlink's international activities outside the U.S. and Europe are still very limited. Its lack of localpresence in those regions may affect its ability to support out-of-area customers in the short term.Fiberlink is actively extending its reach through its partnering channel network.

The current implementation of containerization in MaaS360 is limited to links of corporate emailand documents, and does not include applications — either third-party or proprietary applications.

MaaS360's management approach is device-centric and not user-centric, and doesn't supportsimple management of devices and applications per user. This is increasingly limiting for ITorganizations managing mobility for employees who own more than one device and have multipleapplications on them.

Return to Top

Good TechnologyGood Technology is based in Sunnyvale, California. Good for Enterprise (GFE) is a mobility suite thatsupports mobile collaboration, with strong support for security and management. The main componentsof the suite are Good Mobile Messaging, for secure wireless email; Good Mobile Control, for MDM; GoodMobile Access, for secure access to corporate data; and Good Dynamics, for developing and deployingcontainerized applications. Management and security capabilities are available only as part of the entire

availability of user groups, service-level agreementsand so on.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet itsgoals and commitments. Factors include the quality ofthe organizational structure, including skills,experiences, programs, systems and other vehiclesthat enable the organization to operate effectively andefficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of VisionMarket Understanding: Ability of the vendor tounderstand buyers' wants and needs and to translatethose into products and services. Vendors that showthe highest degree of vision listen and understandbuyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhancethose with their added vision.

Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set ofmessages consistently communicated throughout theorganization and externalized through the website,advertising, customer programs and positioningstatements.

Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products thatuses the appropriate network of direct and indirectsales, marketing, service, and communication affiliatesthat extend the scope and depth of market reach,skills, expertise, technologies, services and thecustomer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approachto product development and delivery that emphasizesdifferentiation, functionality, methodology and featuresets as they map to current and future requirements.

Business Model: The soundness and logic of thevendor's underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategyto direct resources, skills and offerings to meet thespecific needs of individual market segments, includingvertical markets.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary andsynergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital forinvestment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptivepurposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to directresources, skills and offerings to meet the specificneeds of geographies outside the "home" or nativegeography, either directly or through partners,channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for thatgeography and market.

mobility suite, and require the adoption of the Good Mobile Messaging client on devices, for secureaccess to corporate intranet sites, applications and data that are inside the firewall without requiring aVPN infrastructure. Good for Government adds support for Common Access Card integration andsecurity features, such as S/MIME.

Good receives recurrent licensing payments from Research In Motion (RIM), Microsoft and othervendors that settled patent litigations with Visto. A patent litigation is currently ongoing with Excitor inthe U.S. Good Technology is recommended for large companies that want strong security support fortheir mobile devices, and for those customers concerned about the legal liabilities of intermixedbusiness and consumer information.

Strengths

Good Technology has a long history and successful track record in enterprise mobility. It has adeep understanding of security and compliance issues and requirements.

It has a large installed base in regulated sectors, such as financial services, government, defense,public sector, healthcare and professional services.

Good Technology has the strongest implementation of containerization currently available in themarket, to protect and isolate corporate data and applications from personal data andapplications. Containerization is available for multiple OS platforms (iOS, Android and WindowsPhone). With data leakage prevention and encryption, it protects Good's proprietary applications(email, calendar, contacts and browser), as well as applications developed with its SDKs and APIs(or third-party apps wrapped for containerization).

It has strong security capabilities, including FIPS 140-2 crypto libraries, end-to-end 192-bitencryption, multiple-factor authentication and multiple certifications.

It has strategic partnerships with mobile operators, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T,Verizon and Telstra. These help Good in providing support, better data contracts and service levelsto international customers.

Cautions

The cost of the Good solution is relatively high per user seat, compared with other vendors,because Good includes its MDM solution as part of its Good for Enterprise. That solution securesmobile collaboration (email, calendar and contacts), providing secure access to corporate intranetapplications and data, and enables secure file management.

Good does not offer management or integration for BlackBerry devices and BES.

There are no cloud offerings, nor does Good yet integrate with major cloud-based email serviceproviders.

Good Technology's MDM capabilities cannot be used independently of its messaging application.No lightweight MDM offering is available for organizations that would like to privilege the userexperience with native apps on the device (such as the native email client), and care less aboutlocking down the corporate footprint on the device.

Some Good users complain about their usage experiences with native applications on the mobiledevice — for example, the lack of real-time email push and notifications in the Good Messagingclient for iOS; or the Safari browser not allowed within the container to access the corporateintranet.

Return to Top

IBMIBM, headquartered in Armonk, New York, is the latest big vendor to launch an MDM offering. Based onits purchase and launch of BigFix for PCs, its MDM has only recently become available in the market.IBM's MDM capability is very complementary to that of PCs, and it is one of the few vendors in thisMagic Quadrant that can support PCs and mobile devices. IBM also has additional products that couldintegrate well into an MDM platform, such as TEM capabilities through its Emptoris acquisition, andmobile application development with Worklight. To date, IBM hasn't offered any integrated product withMDM. Gartner recommends IBM for midsize and large businesses, especially those that are alreadyBigFix customers.

Strengths

It is a good complement to PC management.

It does not rely on enterprise application software or IBM Traveler.

It is clear and easy to navigate.

The solution can provide a full enterprise mobile solution, including TEM, MDM and mobileapplication development.

Cautions

IBM is not a mobile-focused vendor, and some of the features and formats in its MDM tool showits PC-focused experience, looking more computing-centric versus communications-centric.

It does not provide any network service management.

IBM can support only native device encryption.

Its user interface design is basic, with minimal reporting functions.

Return to Top

LANDesk

LANDesk, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the few providers that support PCs and mobiledevices. Known for its PC management, LANDesk grew, largely through organic product development.The modules within LANDesk Management Suite (LDMS) share a common look and feel. Starting inNovember 2010, it released a Microsoft Exchange-based MDM solution to all LANDesk customers aspart of LANDesk Management Suite. A year later, LANDesk released an MDM product, LANDesk MobilityManager, which operates from the LDMS console. LANDesk should be considered by large companiesthat want an integrated PC and MDM suite.

Strengths

LANDesk supports PCs and mobile devices.

It is a strong player in the PC management market, and it also understands enterprise needs.

Cautions

LANDesk has some past experience in mobility, but only in Windows and Palm, and is new tosupporting iOS and Android platforms.

It is virtually unknown for mobile support today, and does not extend much beyond its installedbase of LDMS users.

It has one of the more nonintuitive and complex interfaces for navigation and use.

There is no separation of the core management product from that of mobility.

It has minimal Android support, and weak application and software management.

Return to Top

McAfeeBased in Santa Clara, California, McAfee is a long-standing player in endpoint security. McAfee holdsleadership positions in related Magic Quadrants (see "Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection" and"Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms"). McAfee's MDM product, Enterprise MobilityManagement (EMM), provides broad support for new and legacy mobile platforms, including Android,iPhone and iPad, Nokia S60, Windows Mobile 6.x and Windows Phone 7. McAfee's strengths in adjacentmarkets get noticed by buyers who are leveraging platforms and seeking to avoid point solutions, andMcAfee has followed a familiar competitive pattern of discounts for combined purchases.

Strengths

EMM is built from technologies acquired from Trust Digital, which already had a strong reputationfor mobile phone security when it was acquired in 2010.

EMM licenses no critical-path technologies from other companies that could be challenged by anoutside acquisition.

Its long-term strategic work with Intel may provide unique opportunities for McAfee securitytechnologies to play a critical role for new smartphone and tablet platforms.

Cautions

Gartner client feedback characterized EMM as a vestigial consideration, rather than a shortlistpriority. Purchases were made on the basis of attractive pricing and bundling, rather than oncompetitive features.

AT&T has resold EMM as on-premises software for more than a year, but this approach also hadlittle effect on competitive visibility. AT&T also sells other MDM vendor products, rather thanexclusively promoting McAfee.

Return to Top

MobileIronMobileIron is a private company based in Mountain View, California. Funded by leading venturecapitalists, such as Sequoia Capital, MobileIron entered the market in August 2009. Since then, it hasexperienced swift growth in visibility, sales and market share — growing more than 400% in revenue in2011. MobileIron's business is entirely focused on enterprise mobility management, with itson-premises product, Virtual Smartphone Platform (VSP), and cloud service offering, Connected Cloud.

Strengths

MobileIron has great visibility and adoption in the MDM market in multiple regions. MobileIronowns high levels of mind share in the MDM market, and appears frequently on shortlists.

It has a very articulated and rich mix of partnership relations with distribution channels and OEMs(such as AT&T, Vodafone Global Enterprise, SingTel, Deutsche Telekom and Virtela), strategictechnology partners (for example, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM, Cisco, HP and IBM), andbusiness application partners — Accellion, Box, GroupLogic and MeLLmo (Roambi).

MobileIron has a growing presence in multiple regions outside North America, thanks to itschannel network. This includes some of Europe and Asia/Pacific (Australia, New Zealand andChina).

The company emphasizes comprehensive life cycle management, including usage monitoring, costcontrol, and application deployment and version control. It offers strong support for corporate andpersonal devices.

The product has strong reporting and dashboard capabilities. Among the many features, itsupports text messaging archiving for devices connected to corporate email with archivingsystems.

Cautions

MobileIron does not support containerization for corporate data and applications. It is not possibleto isolate the corporate footprint from personal applications and data. Although it offers a broadrange of capabilities to enforce controls on mobile devices connected to corporate systems, mostpolicies must be applied to the entire device (as opposed to the corporate portion only). WithBYOD, this may limit an owner's freedom to download and execute applications, such as Dropbox,for personal use.

Its application management capabilities are limited. MobileIron products do not providemechanisms to enforce security and manageability on enterprise-developed or third-partyapplications through integration with its MDM platform (for example, wrapping).

It does not have its own encryption capabilities, and must work with what's on-device or throughpartners, which could cause higher costs. Buyers need to understand the limits of embeddedprotections on each platform, because these will be the limits to what MobileIron can manage.

MobileIron needs to continue to increase its support for larger installations. Some customers havebeen concerned by some limitation in platform scalability for large or mass-scale deployments ofgreater than 20,000 devices.

MobileIron had relied on inconsistent local support through partners, but has recently moved toprovide direct Tier 1 support in the U.S. and EMEA.

Return to Top

MYMobile SecurityBased in London, England, MYMobile Security is a midsize mobile security vendor primarily in theantivirus business. It has just recently created an MDM offering for enterprises. MYMobile Security isrecommended for small companies, especially in EMEA, that are looking more for client-side protection.

Strengths

It is a security-focused company, with a large installed base of users.

MYMobile Security focuses on client-side protection.

Cautions

It has no real experience with midsize and large enterprises.

MYMobile Security has no visibility outside of Western Europe, and no North American office andsupport.

It has more consumer than enterprise experience.

Return to Top

OpenPeakBased in Boca Raton, Florida, OpenPeak is a newer vendor in the MDM space. It provides a way tosecure (through its Sanction product), deliver (through OpenShop), and manage (through Sector) anycontent and any application to almost any device. It also provides end-to-end application managementwith OpenShop. It wraps any application — third-party found on an app store, or enterprise-developed— in its secure, encrypted wrapper. All application and firmware packages are signed and encrypted. Itis then downloaded to a proprietary container, what it calls the Sector Virtual Workspace, on the devicewhere it can be managed and IT rules about the movement of the application or content are applied.OpenPeak is recommended for midsize and large companies, especially those located in North America,with a focus on BYOD, plus secure application and content management.

Strengths

It has strong MDM console features and navigation.

Its easy-to-use user interface is clean and modern-looking.

OpenPeak's complete MDM solution includes application and content management.

Cautions

It is a relatively small vendor, so it will have to work hard to prove its capability for scale andcustomers.

OpenPeak has low visibility in MDM today. It needs to invest in its marketing and salescapabilities.

Return to Top

SAPSAP, a public company based in Waldorf, Germany, is a leader in business software, with offices all overthe world. Through the acquisition of Sybase, it is now in the mobility space, with a number of offerings— including MDM. That product was formerly listed in the MDM Magic Quadrant as Sybase's Afaria, butis now branded as SAP. Afaria is the longest-established MDM platform, reaching back to PCs in the late1980s. Afaria for laptops was created in 1997, and subsequently released in 2000 as the firstnonindustrial MDM platform for Palm and Windows devices. The current version of Afaria (7.0) isdelivered as an on-premises software product, through SaaS or as a managed service through partners.

SAP has relied mostly on its direct sales channel for the past year to deliver its product to market. Thishas excluded most other channels, although it still has some arrangements with telecom providers,

such as Verizon. This has also reduced its visibility in the MDM market space. However, recent changesto its senior management team, and its renewed focus on mobility and expanding its indirect channel,will make SAP a big contender in this space during the coming year. Its plans to integrate its mobileapplication development platform, and recent announcement on its partnership with Amazon on a cloudoffering, will make it very competitive in the market. Gartner recommends using SAP in midsize andlarge companies that also have needs for mobile application development.

Strengths

SAP's highly scalable solution can support very large installations through highly availableinstances and content synchronization across distributed servers in different physical locations. Forexample, it delivers 140,000 user deployments on four servers.

The mobile application management capability in Afaria 7.0 includes an enterprise applicationportal on the device to enable business application distribution, security enforcement throughapplication certificates and application management. SAP's Afaria, which also appears in two otherGartner Magic Quadrants (see "Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software" and"Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms"), is better positioned to provisionapplications built on SAP's mobile application platform. However, its application store is notmultiplatform across PCs and mobile devices.

Its advanced support for help desk support, and application and service management, includesnew reporting, analytics and device usage features.

Afaria's Android support includes an application portal for enterprise application management andextended APIs — for the Advanced Enterprise Security (AES) module for Samsung (more than 150APIs), Motorola and LG.

Cautions

SAP has lacked leadership in MDM innovation in recent years. The company only creates featuresonce demand has developed in the market. For example, Afaria does not yet support WindowsPhone 7 or mobile file-sharing capabilities. Some competitors have these capabilities alreadyavailable in commercial offerings. SAP has only recently launched a much needed updated userinterface. However, with new management changes in its Mobility unit, SAP is significantlyinvesting in improving its innovation and execution this coming year.

Customer feedback indicates that Afaria can be expensive, for seat licenses (twice that ofcompetitors) and maintenance. The company is looking at all aspects of pricing, on-premises andcloud.

Feedback to Gartner indicates that buyers find the installation of Afaria to be complex. Althoughthe new interface is better, companies planning a new or first purchase must plan for a learningcurve. The company's cloud deployment plans could help in this area.

Return to Top

SilverbackMDMBased out of Sydney, Australia, Silverback is new in the MDM market. Its product has been out for oneyear. It comes from a background of enterprise security though, so is not new to securing enterpriseneeds. Silverback has had very little presence outside Asia/Pacific, although it has recent hires in NorthAmerica to build its market presence. It was one of the first to market with an integrated file-sharingcapability. The product does not require Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) for enrollment ofiOS devices, and was early in its support for network access control (NAC) for increased securitypostures. Silverback is recommended for midsize companies, especially in Asia/Pacific.

Strengths

Silverback has a strong background in security and enterprise services.

It has a clean user interface and tool design that is easy to use and full-featured.

It is one of the few vendors with a perpetual licensing model, rather than annual licensing.

Silverback offers multiple types of enrollment, including PIN-based.

Cautions

It has no agent support on Android.

SilverbackMDM's weak reporting (beyond agent dashboards) forces clients to use third-partybusiness intelligence systems.

Return to Top

Smith Micro SoftwareBased in Aliso Viejo, California, Smith Micro is new to the MDM business, but not to the wireless world.Smith Micro's main business is writing communications and user software for carrier remote-accessservices and products, including wireless modems and aircards. Much of its communications experiencecomes from working with carriers on their wireless services. Smith Micro is recommended for midsizecompanies looking for basic MDM services.

Strengths

Smith Micro is a longtime wireless and mobile software developer.

It has revenue outside of MDM.

Cautions

It does not have a dedicated channel to market.

Smith Micro has not shown commitment to MDM. It has a short track record in this space.

Return to Top

SophosSophos met the inclusion criteria for the 2011 Magic Quadrant by exceeding sales and licensethresholds, along with the release of multiple platform support. Sophos is headquartered jointly inBoston, Massachusetts and Abingdon, U.K. Sophos generates 65% of its revenue outside of NorthAmerica, earning favor in rest-of-world markets.

Strengths

Sophos Mobile Control (SMC) will be integrated with Sophos Enterprise Management, providingbenefits for companies invested broadly in the company's products. SMC is developed in-houseand, therefore, is not subject to cross-license or acquisition risks in the crowded MDMmarketplace.

Sophos offers products in several related markets, which contributes to competitive visibility,including leader ranking for mobile data endpoint protection and unified threat management.

Sophos sells an innovative add-on tool, Sophos Mobile Encryption, which can be set totransparently encrypt data that leaves a mobile device, including writing to a cloud servicethrough a third-party application like DropBox, or writing to a Secure Digital (SD) card. Thismethod may appeal in some DLP scenarios.

Sophos offers an optional cloud-based mobile app reputation database that can be used bycompanies to push modified device profiles if unwanted apps are detected by the on-device agent.

Cautions

Despite global visibility and a long track record in many security markets, SMC has had littlevisibility as a mobile security and MDM solution.

Its MDM revenue during the study period was on the low end of the market range. Sophos'acquisition of Dialogs occurred after the end of the study period, and will bring new investment,channels and clients into the picture for next year's market evaluation.

Based on a Sophos design decision resulting from customer feedback, SMC currently doesn'tdifferentiate between personal and company devices. Policy declarations are separated acrossplatforms, and there is no option to declare a master setting dialogue framework and then to notewhich policies are supported or not among different platforms or model devices in the list.

Return to Top

SotiSoti is a private company based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Soti has a long and successful trackrecord in supporting ruggedized handhelds based on a variety of Microsoft mobile OSs — with theproduct MobiControl. During the past two years, MobiControl has broadened to include MDM ofruggedized and nonruggedized Android, Apple and Microsoft devices. MobiControl is availableon-premises, as a managed service and in the cloud (SaaS). Soti has had less visibility in the larger,more horizontal deployments than competitors, and has slower adoption in its iOS management growththan some others. Soti is suitable for those companies targeting primarily Android-based deployments,especially with an industrial, application-specific use.

Strengths

Soti has a strong global presence through a large partner program. OEM relationships includeApple, Casio, HTC, Motorola, LG, RIM, Panasonic, Intermec, Honeywell, Psion, Lenovo, Samsungand ZTE. With Samsung, Soti has exclusive agreements around Remote Control APIs that wereco-developed by Soti for Samsung Android products. Soti also provides "remote view" for iOSdevices.

Soti provides device-layer MDM integration for Android, which improves consistency and depth-of-management functions across devices from different manufacturers with different builds andversions of the Android OS.

Its scalability of the platform on large-volume deployments has been proven by a number of verylarge deployments (in the postal sector) with volumes greater than 130,000 units.

It offers a good administrative user interface and multiple methods of use. The dashboard has aneffective and customizable graphic display and reporting views. MobiControl integrates withAirWave LAN infrastructure management solutions.

Cautions

Soti's focus has been on the Android market, which has emerging but lower interest amongnonindustrial enterprise companies, compared with Apple iPhones and iPads.

Soti is very successful in vertical industries in relation to ruggedized device deployments, but isless known for its MDM offering to manage smartphones and media tablets, especially in thenewer BYOD market, based on competitive visibility checks across multiple sources.

Potential buyers should inquire about support options, particularly 24/7 service levels, outside ofSoti's directly supported geographies.

Return to Top

SymantecSymantec Mobile Management (SMM) has provided MDM for two years, based originally on a license ofOdyssey Software. Symantec, headquartered in Mountain View, California, acquired Odyssey Softwareafter the end of the evaluation period and will fully integrate its console and mobile DLP solution intothe Symantec security solution, SMM. SMM provides Symantec's first competitive entry in the MDMmarket. It has also recently acquired Nukona, a mobile application security and management company,and it will also support deeper mobile application management. However, its integrated product is notyet available. Symantec is recommended for those companies that want a broad MDM platformintegrated into their overall enterprise security suites.

Strengths

Symantec will offer one of the broadest mobile security, device management and applicationmanagement systems through its recent acquisitions of Odyssey and Nukona.

Integration with other Symantec product frameworks is a strategic advantage for long-termSymantec customers.

Symantec has a consistent and strong track record for overall viability, and for competitive salesand support of a wide range of security services. Its global reseller network is strong andwell-trained.

Digital signatures may be set up for a variety of use cases, including task-specific policies.Symantec can leverage its strong position in certificate authority (CA) and public-keyinfrastructure (PKI) to attract security-conscious buyers.

Symantec Web Gateway, a secure Web gateway, can provide a valuable Internet security filter formobile devices when managed under SMM.

Cautions

Historically, Symantec has not quickly integrated its acquired technology, but made progress withrecent acquisitions like Vontu and VeriSign. Symantec needs to integrate Nukona capabilities andexecute in the field.

The company's considerable sales resources need to leverage Symantec's leadership in adjacentmarkets to more clearly articulate a holistic story if it is to compete with smaller companiestouting their point solutions.

Symantec intends to include its mobile NAC capabilities within its Mobile Security product;however, the current product doesn't have built-in automated compliance actions out of the box.

Return to Top

TangoeBased in Orange, Connecticut, Tangoe is the largest TEM provider, and continues to work to tie the TEMservice market to the enterprise managed mobility service market. Tangoe's focus is on completecommunications life cycle solutions and managed mobility services, providing integrated TEM, MDM,Tangoe's rTEM, machine to machine, sourcing, and device recycling. As such, Tangoe is typically not asleading edge with functionality as its MDM-only focused competitors, typically six to nine monthsfollowing first occurrence in the market, as was the case with content management. Its interface is notas attractive as those of competitors, although the company is planning an update in this year that willaddress user interface and TEM-MDM integration issues.

Although it offers very competitive market pricing, usually the low-cost provider, it has not focused onthe stand-alone MDM market as much as it has on the TEM market. Gartner thinks Tangoe isbest-suited for its new and existing TEM customers looking for bundled MDM capabilities and amanaged service solution versus a stand-alone MDM software tool.

Strengths

This is one of the few integrated TEM and MDM platforms.

Tangoe offers a managed service, as well as on-premises hosted solutions. There are no cloudofferings yet.

It is one of the larger companies in the MDM space. It is very communications-focused.

Tangoe offers a low-cost MDM platform.

It has one of the stronger network system management features, via its acquisition of AnomalousNetworks.

Cautions

Tangoe focuses on a broader communications management solution and, as such, allocates less ofits overall product investment on MDM-only features, as compared with competitors in the Leadersquadrant. As a result, Tangoe lags its competitors on some MDM features by as much as six tonine months.

Tangoe's MDM solution is due for a significant user interface and TEM integration update, whichare planned for 2012.

Tangoe typically does not focus solely on the MDM stand-alone market. It needs to improve itsMDM direct and indirect channel capabilities beyond IBM and Dell.

Return to Top

Trend MicroBased in Cupertino, California, Trend Micro is one of the bigger players in the security market, with a

focus on consumer and enterprise systems. The majority of its sales come from Asia/Pacific. Its MDMfunctionality began in 2009, with Windows Mobile, and iOS and Android were added during the pastyear. Trend Micro is recommended for midsize and large companies, especially those with Trend Microas their security vendor, and those based in Asia/Pacific.

Strengths

Its user interface is very simple and is easily used by legacy customers.

It integrates well with the existing Trend Micro OfficeScan security platform.

Cautions

Trend Micro has little visibility in the MDM market, and has primarily focused on extending its offerto its installed base of customers.

It has weak application management, no support from Apple's volume purchasing program, andno wipe based on rules, manual only.

It is known as much for consumer support as it is for enterprise support.

Return to Top

ZenpriseZenprise, based in Redwood City, California, was founded in 2003. It is a small company focused solelyon MDM. It has a full feature set for life cycle management, including cost control through usagemonitoring. It has significant venture capital funding, and expanded its customer service and operationscapabilities during the past year. Zenprise has done a good job in increasing visibility among midsizeand large companies during the past year, and continues to innovate and lead in vision for the MDMmarket, creating early support for mobile applications and collaboration capabilities (like browsers andSharePoint) and mobile DLP. Supported devices include iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian S60,Windows Mobile 6.x and Windows Phone 7. Gartner recommends Zenprise for midsize and largecompanies in any geography.

Strengths

Zenprise's revenue growth more than doubled during the past year, confirming its viability as apoint solution provider and putting it at the bottom of the range of high performance in thismarket.

Zenprise Mobile DLP provides innovative secure container solutions to operate locally on mobiledevices, as well as to be accessed in the cloud.

Its application-blacklisting technique works across Apple iOS and Google Android devices.

Zenprise offers its own secure Web gateway and can also integrate with Blue Coat Systems andPalo Alto Networks.

Zenprise provides extensive support for NAC and specializes in client scenarios, where mobiledevices need to be placed on internal LANs. Capabilities include integration with third-party NACsolutions, such as Cisco ISE, various Wi-Fi infrastructure vendors, and security information andevent management (SIEM) integration.

Cautions

Gartner still hears about occasional support response issues; however, improvements have beenseen in 1Q12 as the company reported an increase in support staff and a substantial decrease inthe time it takes to close trouble tickets.

There has been some channel conflict between Zenprise and its partners.

Zenprise is still growing its international capabilities.

Return to Top

Vendors Added or DroppedWe review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change.As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope maychange over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not the nextdoes not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. This may be a reflectionof a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.

Return to Top

AddedThese vendors were included, because they met the criteria we cite later in this Magic Quadrant:

Amtel

IBM

LANDesk

MYMobile Security

OpenPeak

SilverbackMDM

Sophos

Trend Micro

Return to Top

DroppedThese vendors were dropped for various reasons, because they did not meet this year's MDM inclusioncriteria:

Capricode — It did not meet the revenue and other requirements.

Excitor — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

FancyFon Software — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

Fixmo — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

Ibelem — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

Mobile Active Defense — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

Motorola Solutions — It did not meet the criteria for multi-OS support and sales levels.

The Institution — It did not meet the revenue requirements.

These vendors were dropped because they were acquired by another listed provider:

Odyssey — It was acquired by Symantec in March 2012.

Ubitexx — It was acquired by RIM. RIM's new multiplatform MDM system, Mobile Fusion, was justrecently made generally available. It will be evaluated for potential inclusion in next year's MagicQuadrant.

Fromdistance — It was acquired by Numara, which was then acquired by BMC Software.

Return to Top

Inclusion and Exclusion CriteriaGartner is aware of more than 100 vendors, on a global basis, that claim some level of MDMfunctionality, and come from many areas of mobile support, including security, messaging, notebookmanagement, wireless hardware manufacturing and mobile applications. In most markets, even growthmarkets, there continues to be a large number of competing vendors with similar products and featuresets. Our criteria for inclusion in the MDM Magic Quadrant cover not just the technology, but alsobusiness metrics in this growing market.

Inclusion Criteria

After due consideration, we selected 20 vendors to be included for ranking in this Magic Quadrant.Meeting these criteria was necessary for inclusion:

Support for enterprise-class (noncarrier), multiplatform support MDM (software or SaaS), with anemphasis on mobility

Specific MDM product focus and feature set, or a primary focus on MDM in another product set(messaging or security)

Security management, with at least these features:Enhanced abilities to download, monitor, and revoke certificates for email, apps, Wi-Fi, VPNand so on

Enforced password

Device wipe

Remote lock

Audit trail/logging, including the ability to verify device configuration from a central console

Jailbreak/rooted detection

At least three mobile OS platforms supported

Policy and compliance management

Software management, with at least these capabilities supported:Application downloader — the ability to push or pull applications on a mobile device

Application verification — the ability to verify origin of the mobile application

Application update support

Application patch support

Application store support — the ability to list and manage enterprise and third-partyapplications

Hardware management, with at least these capabilities supported:External memory blocking — block any use of flash memory cards or other external memory

Configuration change history — audit trail on any changes made on the hardware

Having sold at least 75,000 licenses

Five referenceable accounts

No more than 70% of revenue in one main geographic region or market

At least $1.5 million in MDM-specific revenue

General availability by mid-1Q12

Exclusion Criteria

MDM companies not included (see Note 1 and Note 2) in this Magic Quadrant might have been excludedfor one or more of these conditions:

The company did not have a competitive product in the market for a sufficient amount of timeduring calendar-year 2011, and the first quarter of 2012, to establish a visible, competitiveposition and track record.

The company did not meet the listed inclusion criteria.

The company delivered its software through a third party, or as a service only, and does not havean enterprise software platform.

The large number of vendors claiming a presence in this market makes it impossible to include everycompany. Vendors were individually reviewed, discussed and selected by a team of Gartner analysts.

Return to Top

Evaluation CriteriaAbility to ExecuteGartner analysts evaluate technology providers on the quality and efficacy of the processes, systems,methods, or procedures that enable IT provider performance to be competitive, efficient and effective,and to positively affect revenue, retention and reputation (see Table 1). For MDM, this involvedproviding on-premises-based or SaaS/cloud delivery capability, with the required number of features tomanage the software, security and hardware of a midsize or large (more than 1,000 devices)organization. We were also looking for a diversity of channel support, operations capability and theability to support a global organization.

Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Product/Service High

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization) High

Sales Execution/Pricing Standard

Market Responsiveness and Track Record Standard

Marketing Execution Standard

Customer Experience High

Operations Standard

Source: Gartner (May 2012)

Completeness of VisionGartner analysts evaluate technology providers on their ability to convincingly articulate logicalstatements about current and future market direction, innovation, customer needs, and competitiveforces, as well as how they map to the Gartner position. Ultimately, technology providers are rated ontheir understanding of how market forces can be exploited to create opportunity for the provider, whichis especially important in a diverse mobile world, with no platform standardization and a quickly movingmarket and technology. MDM providers should have a significant vision (see Table 2) of the evolvingmarket, including software delivery methods, innovative and differentiated features, and geographicexpansion, as well as distribution and technology partnerships.

Table 2. Completeness of VisionEvaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Market Understanding High

Marketing Strategy Standard

Sales Strategy Standard

Offering (Product) Strategy High

Business Model Standard

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Vertical/Industry Strategy No Rating

Innovation High

Geographic Strategy Standard

Source: Gartner (May 2012)

Quadrant DescriptionsLeadersLeaders demonstrate balanced progress, effort and clout in all execution and vision categories and arethe first to envision, develop, and launch new MDM features, partnerships and strategies. If they arenot one of the leading MDM providers in sales, they are, at a minimum, the most critical competitivethreat to their peers in open competition. A leading vendor is not a default choice for all buyers, andclients are warned not to assume that they should buy only from the Leaders quadrant.

To stay on the right side of the chart, Leaders (and Visionaries) must offer features that removesignificant roadblocks to the complex challenges enterprises face when attempting to treat mobileconsumer devices as business tools. One example of a competitively disruptive activity might includedelivering a "sandbox" method to prevent data leakage between personal and business applications.Another is the ability to support enterprise and third-party applications, provide a deeper securitycapability, and actively partner for technology capabilities.

Return to Top

ChallengersChallengers have attractive products that address the typical baseline needs for MDM, with competitivevisibility that is strong enough to demand attention in RFPs but that may not show up as often, nor winas many as Leaders. Challengers may win contracts by competing on a limited selection of functions ora limited selection of prospective buyers by industry, geography or other limiting factors, even if, onspeculation, their products have broad functions. They may be perceived as a threat by other vendors,but that threat will be primarily focused on a limited class of buyers, rather than the MDM market as awhole. Challengers are efficient and expedient choices for defined access problems.

Return to Top

VisionariesVisionaries are able to demonstrate long-term strategies for MDM that point to the product and serviceapproaches that will be most competitive in the future. Visionaries might affect the course of MDM, butthey lack the execution influence to outmaneuver Challengers and Leaders. Also, Visionaries may nothave the funding nor the capability to scale their businesses and provide robust operations andcustomer support. Marketing and mind share are also weak areas for Visionaries. Buyers may pickVisionaries for best-of-breed features, and for broader infrastructure investments than Niche Players.Smaller vendors may take risks on potentially disruptive technologies, while larger vendors may be inthe process of building out their next-generation portfolios. Buyers of Visionaries' products may basetheir selections on specific technology features and by participating in the vendor's road map.

Return to Top

Niche PlayersNiche Players meet the typical needs of buyers, and fare well when given a chance to compete in aproduct evaluation, but are usually smaller, and many buyers may be unaware of their services. Largercompanies in the Niche Players quadrant may not have fully articulated a vision or strategy, and mayhave fallen behind the competition as the market moves forward. They may not be as invested in theMDM market as other companies, and are focused on more of their core market offerings. Niche Playersgenerally lack the clout to change the course of the market or have not yet made the investment to doso. They may offer an uncommon delivery mechanism for products and services. They may rely on aself-limiting business model, and/or have limited influence outside of a particular industry orgeography. Niche Players may target clients that, for various reasons, prefer not to buy from largernetwork players. In many Gartner market studies, buyers report that Niche Players tend to providemore personal attention to their needs.

Return to Top

ContextAlthough some of the vendors and products have been around for a long time, MDM is a nascentmarket, and the vendors' offerings have little consistency and are evolving rapidly. "MDM" is amisnomer, because products support more than just "managing" a device. MDM products arebroadening out in areas of security, application and enterprise document management. Many comefrom mobile backgrounds like messaging and security to support MDM, and worldwide, there are morethan 100 companies in this space. Of these, 75 were deemed potential candidates for this MagicQuadrant.

Return to Top

Market Overview

"Mobile Device Management" Defined

MDM is not new on the market, but the demands of new platforms keep MDM valuable to enterprises.Although many companies are trying to solve a similar problem, it takes multiple types of mobilesoftware to address a full solution. A full MDM solution has four main components:

Software management — This is the ability to manage and support mobile applications, contentand operating systems. The components are:

Configuration

Updates

Patches/fixes

Backup/restore

Provisioning

Authorized software monitoring

Transcode

Hosting

Managed mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs)

Development

Background synchronization.

Network service management — This is the ability to gain information off of the device thatcaptures location, usage, and cellular and WLAN network information. The components are:

Invoice/dispute

Procure and provision

Reporting

Help desk/support

Usage

Service and contract

Hardware management — Beyond basic asset management, this includes provisioning andsupport. The components are:

Procurement

Provisioning

Asset/inventory

Activation

Deactivation

Shipping

Imaging

Performance

Battery life

Memory

Security management — This is the enforcement of standard device security, authentication andencryption. The components are:

Remote wipe

Remote lock

Secure configuration

Policy enforcement password-enabled

Encryption

Authentication

Firewall

Antivirus

Mobile VPN

Although many MDM vendors may have different definitions, these are the general areas we assess inMDM.

MDM Market Growth

The market and interest in MDM continue to grow. Driven by the move from well-managed and securedBlackBerrys, to consumer-focused devices based on iOS, MDM is the fastest-growing enterprise mobilesoftware ever (in terms of number of suppliers, revenue growth and interest from Gartner clients). Interms of priority, our EXP CIO Survey, released in January 2012, rates mobility second, up from thirdlast year. This is primarily because of the new smartphones and tablets that enterprises need tomanage. Many vendors are seeing fast growth — bringing on 30 to 40 new deals each week, comparedwith a quarter of that 12 months ago. This is driving MDM licensing revenue up from $200 million in2010, to more than $350 million in 2011, with the majority of sales in North America and WesternEurope. MDM licensing revenue alone is expected to top $500 million globally in 2012. This rapidgrowth has interested new companies to enter this space, as demonstrated by this Magic Quadrant.However, not all companies are faring well, and many of the regional MDM vendors have not grown atthe same rate, with the dominant players based in North America selling to multinational companiesneeding global support.

MDM Market Drivers

Interest in MDM continues, based on these main reasons:

During the past year, many companies have moved to iOS as their main mobile device platform,with others to follow during the next 12 to 18 months. An April 2012 Gartner survey showed that58% of enterprises have or will make iOS their primary platform during the next 12 months,compared with 20% staying with BlackBerry and 9% on Android. Most companies started outsupporting these devices, using the policies found in Exchange ActiveSync, but after a while,needed a fuller platform to support devices (see Note 3). As enterprises continue to offermultiplatform support, and new platforms continue to emerge (like Windows 8), MDM needs willcontinue to grow.

The introduction of new form factors, like tablets in the enterprise, is also driving the growth ofMDM. Although most enterprises are not replacing a PC or phone with a tablet, nor are theypaying for them, users are purchasing and using their own tablets to access enterprise data. Thelarger format of a tablet makes reading enterprise content easier and more convenient. It alsopresents the need for more security and policy to manage the greater amounts of data found onthese employee-owned devices.

Although more features and policies are being supported on MDM platforms than ever before,much of this is driven by what the mobile OS providers allow. With each release of a new OS,Apple increases the number of policies that can be instituted on its devices. However, Apple hasstrict guidelines about its device support. In the end, every vendor manages Apple devices thesame way. There is no differentiation there among vendors. Google is similar, but still offers aweaker management support. In the latest version of Android, 4.0, it opened only 16 MDM APIsfor OEMs and MDM providers to manage, compared with more than 500 on the latest version ofBlackBerry. Some OEMs have gone in and built their own MDM APIs, but this is time-consumingand expensive to do for each device and version of Android.

This has severely limited Android adoption in the enterprise, and even today, very few enterprisesprovide support. MDM is primarily sold as on-premises software, and around 85% of MDM licensesare premises-based. However, as more cloud/SaaS offerings emerge, and as enterprises need toscale to more than 30,000 supported devices, cloud-based systems will continue to grow. This willalso help drive down the MDM ASPs, from approximately $60 per user, per year on average in 2012,to less than $40 per user, per year in 2015.

The Future of MDM

Those companies that have recently developed MDM differentiate their products from othermanagement consoles by security vendors, or PC management and remote support vendors, by theirfocus on mobility and the ease of use and design of their interface. This is becoming more important inthe light of BYOD programs at many companies. In 2011, MDM was focused on supporting basicsecurity on consumer mobile devices and enforcing enterprise policies. Although this still exists, thedrivers to support third-party and enterprise-developed business applications and content arecontinuing the growth of, and interest in, MDM in 2012 and beyond. Supporting the larger form factor,tablets, which makes it easier to create and consume content, is a priority.

Many users have already moved to synchronize their data with Internet-based cloud file synchronizationsystems like Dropbox or Box. The basic offerings were not explicitly meant for enterprise data. As aresult, they represent security risks. A number of vendors have emerged in the MAM sector, becausethey focus on the application part of the solution. Those stand-alone MAM solutions cost the same ormore than a full-function MDM, even with their lighter management capabilities. Much of thisfunctionality is already present or is being built and acquired by the leading MDM vendors. Symantec'sacquisition of Nukona is one indication. This year, most of the top MDM providers will have some typeof enterprise document management system that supports secure storage and transfer of enterprisecontent.

Another big area of growth has been in the enterprise application store. Again, most MDM vendorssupport the ability to store and transfer enterprise applications, as well as link to popular applicationstores from Apple and Google. Extended security is another area that MDM developers are exploring.Since MDM has the ability to manage by profile or user segment, it makes sense to integrate with DLPsystems that manage and secure enterprise content. MDM profiles will enable easier setup ofpermissions and policies in DLP, and allow for more-flexible management of enterprise content.

Today, the more mobile-oriented providers are having the best success in managing mobile devices.According to our recent survey data, most organizations are managing their devices in their messagingand network operations groups, with about 25% of companies managing their mobile devices in theirendpoint computing groups. Gartner expects that number to continue to grow. As more vendorsprovide tools that support mobile platforms as well as PCs, we are seeing an increase in managementoutside of these areas, and we believe this trend will continue.

More data is being put on mobile devices today, and enterprises are fast developing their ownapplications to support their mobile users. As mobile devices continue to displace traditional PCs,enterprises will look to their existing MDM systems to support more devices, enterprise applications anddata. MDM vendors are moving beyond security to support enterprise and third-party applications,data, and content — mobile document management systems. During the next two years, we willcontinue to see MDM platforms broaden out and become enterprise mobile management system(EMMS) platforms, going beyond just devices. This broadening out of MDM EMMS will offer full solutionsas more enterprises rely on mobile devices for more usage throughout the workday, displacingtraditional PCs, especially for mobile users.

Return to Top

© 2012 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. This publication may not be reproducedor distributed in any form without Gartner’s prior written permission. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to bereliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions orinadequacies in such information. This publication consists of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Theopinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Although Gartner research may include a discussion of related legal issues, Gartner does not providelegal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner is a public company, and its shareholders may include firms and funds thathave financial interests in entities covered in Gartner research. Gartner’s Board of Directors may include senior managers of these firms or funds. Gartner research isproduced independently by its research organization without input or influence from these firms, funds or their managers. For further information on the independenceand integrity of Gartner research, see “Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity” on its website, http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ombudsman/omb_guide2.jsp.

About Gartner | Careers | Newsroom | Policies | Site Index | IT Glossary | Contact Gartner